Sam Stainsby wrote:
On Wed, 09 Nov 2005 19:24:27 -0500, William Baric wrote:
I had one of them who was willing to switch to OpenOffice. They didn't
have too much money and they were willing to put up with OpenOffice's
Word, Excel and PowerPoint import/export filter (thanks to MS Viewers).
They were also willing to buy Antidote licence (a french grammar checker
that integrate with OpenOffice). But in the end, I had to forget about
this project because of outlook. The director had a Palm and he wanted
calendar sharing. This meant that They had to buy Outlook.
I also work for an organisation that is unwilling to move away from
Microsoft Office because they feel that they need the calendaring and
meeting arrangement facilities of Outlook, on Windows. Many of them
frequently work offline, so web-based solutions are not applicable. I'm
pinning my hopes on Evolution for Windows, but the project seems to be
moving very slowly (understandably, as it is a complex project with many
libraries to port).
I think that people that argue that there is no reason to develop a mail
client as part of OpenOffice because there are other mail client
applications available are misguided
Stop right there.
You admit that the Windows port of Evolution is progressing slowly. Why
would that be?
Perhaps it's a big task?
Perhaps there aren't many developers on it?
Perhaps it needs more testing?
So. What are we going to do about it?
a) Every many and his dog say "F*** this. I'm going to write my own
email client". I'll see you in 5 years.
b) Make the most use of already scarce resources, and help out the
strongest looking package(s) out there.
People keep demanding that OOo developers drop everything and write an
email client, otherwise they won't switch, and not only that, they don't
know anyone else who will switch either. Jumping up and down and
demanding that a large project such as an email / contact / calendaring
project be done *right* *now* *or* *else* will get you no-where fast.
The simple fact is that a lot of people are already using OpenOffice.
They found a way.
Why can't people get over themselves and use an existing application.
Don't like Evolution? Fine. Test it. Submit bug reports. Hassle the
developers to hurry up with their Windows port. Do you really think that
you're going to get a better product in less time by insisting that OOo
include every function under the sun? You're not. You're just making
noise and demonstrating that you don't have a grasp on how to use open
source software. Use the tools that are already available. If there is a
problem / lack of features / whatever, then submit bugs / features
requests against that existing product. Duplication is a waste of
resources, and as we've already agreed, the functionality that you're
after is non-trivial and will take a long time to complete. Better help
out on that Windows port of Evolution.
--
Daniel Kasak
IT Developer
NUS Consulting Group
Level 5, 77 Pacific Highway
North Sydney, NSW, Australia 2060
T: (+61) 2 9922-7676 / F: (+61) 2 9922 7989
email: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
website: http://www.nusconsulting.com.au
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